Jessica Chastain Page 5

Jessica Chastain had quite the romantic wedding ceremony last week, tying the knot with her long-term Italian partner Gian Luca Passi de Preposulo at his stunning family estate set against the glorious backdrop of Northern Italy more than 4,000 miles from their home in New York City.

Jessica Chastain at Cannes Film Festival

The 40-year-old 'Miss Sloane' star married her boyfriend of five years 34-year-old Gian Luca Passi de Preposulo on Wednesday (June 7th 2017) at Villa Tiepolo Passi in Treviso which is Gian Luca's family mansion and one of the most extraordinary sights in the whole city.

Continue reading: Jessica Chastain Weds Gian Luca Passi De Preposulo At His Fabulous Italian Family Home

Aaron Sorkin has compared directing his leading lady Jessica Chastain on new film Molly’s Game to “driving a Lamborghini”.

The 55 year old filmmaker was speaking at the 2017 edition of CinemaCon in Las Vegas at the end of March, and he said that the 40 year old star made life very easy on set and that he really didn’t have to do much in the way of directing in terms of her role.

Jessica Chastain at CinemaCon 2017 in Las Vegas

Continue reading: Aaron Sorkin Compares Directing Jessica Chastain To Driving A Lamborghini

Jake Gyllenhaal and Jessica Chastain have officially singed on for the big screen adaptation of Tom Clancy video game The Division, developers Ubisoft announced on Tuesday. The game, which shelves back in March, was an instant hit for Ubisoft, achieving a record number of first day sales for the company.

Jake Gyllenhaal will star opposite Jessica Chastain in The Division.

Gyllenhaal will also be producing the adaptation, which centers on the aftermath of a small pox pandemic in dystopian New York. In the video game players must attempt to rebuild the city while fighting and investigating crime.

Continue reading: Jessica Chastain And Jake Gyllenhaal Confirmed As Starring In Video Game Adaptation 'The Division'

Chris Hemsworth returns to the 'Snow White and the Huntsman' series with new prequel 'The Huntsman: Winter's War', alongside Charlize Theron and Sam Claflin, and new additions Emily Blunt and Jessica Chastain. This time, inspiration is taken from Hans Christian Andersen's 'The Snow Queen', so get ready 'Frozen' fans!

Chris Hemsworth is back as a huntsman

If you thought the wicked Queen Ravenna (Theron) was the only threat to the fairytale kingdom of the 'Snow White' saga, think again. For in the beginning, before her apparent defeat at the hands of her fair stepdaughter, she had another adversary; her darling sister Freya (Blunt). Consumed by jealousy, she did nothing as Freya became crippled with a heartbreaking betrayal, running to a kingdom far away where she wallowed in her newfound powers of frost and ice. 

Continue reading: Chris Hemsworth Is Back In The 'Snow White' Prequel 'The Huntsman: Winter's War'

A-list celebrities turned out in Hollywood for the starry Critics' Choice Movie Awards last weekend, including Julianne Moore, Angelina Jolie, Jessica Chastain, Eddie Redmayne, Keira Knightley, Ethan Hawke, Rosamund Pike, Michael Keaton, Reese Witherspoon, Marion Cotillard, David Oyelowo, Felicity Jones, Jennifer Aniston, Amy Adams and Chris Hemsworth. Jared Leto even matched his outfit to the blue carpet.

Photos - 20th Annual Critics' Choice Movie Awards held at the Hollywood Palladium - Part 1

Continue reading: A Week In Movies: Celebrities Turn Out To Collect Awards In Los Angeles And London, Mortdecai Has Three Premieres And New Trailers For Hopkins And Hawke

David Beckham has been a pleasure on the senses for both men and women for decades with his footballing skills impressing men and his modelling skills impressing women – and sometimes vice versa. But his fame and glory has reached new heights after Hollywood actress Jessica Chastain revealed that he's the only footballer she knows, but not because of his soccer skills.

The Hollywood actress will appear on The Graham Norton Show tonight

While sitting on the Graham Norton couch, the Interstellar actress admitted that she's seen Becks in the H&M advertising campaign and she's pretty impressed with what she's seen.

Continue reading: Jessica Chastain Likes A Bit Of Becks Appeal

The reaction to this week's Oscar nominations was a loud one, because Academy voters played it so safe in a year when films expanded to explore a diverse array of themes. Throughout 2014, actors and filmmakers bravely took on big challenges, and many were recognised with nominations. But critics have been quick to point out that all of the acting and directing nominees are white, and #OscarsSoWhite was the trending hashtag on Twitter.

Neil Patrick Harris is hosting this year's Academy Awards

The most obvious snub was for Selma, which only received nods for Best Picture and Best Song (for Common and John Legend's 'Glory'), leaving out the acclaimed actor David Oyelowo and director Ava DuVernay, who would have been the first African-American woman ever nominated for Best Director.

Continue reading: Oscar Nominations Court Controversy

‘The Big Bang Theory’ star Kaley Cuoco-Sweeting has taken to social media to clarify comments she made earlier this week regarding feminism.

In an interview with Redbook magazine, for which she is February’s cover girl, the actress was asked whether she considers a feminist, and replied “is it bad if I say no?” Cuoco-Sweeting also hinted that she didn’t identify with the movement because she didn’t have personal experience of inequality, and that she cooks for her husband Ryan Sweeting “five nights a week”.

Kaley Cuoco-Sweeting clarified her comments on feminism that she made in an interview this week

Continue reading: Kaley Cuoco-Sweeting Clarifies Feminism Comments

Jessica Chastain's career has skyrocketed in the last couple of years, mainly due to receiving critical acclaim for her role in 'Zero Dark Thirty,' therefore so has her profile as a Hollywood star, but being a celebrity is something she isn't interested in.

Chastain isn't interested in becoming anything else but a successful actress

Although the 37-year-old may play many different roles onscreen, she only wants to be “seen as a professional” actress to the public as she realizes her journey to success has been long and tumultuous.

Continue reading: Jessica Chastain Only Desires To Be "Seen As A Professional" Actress, Fame Doesn't Interest Her

Over the past 15 years, Christopher Nolan has proven himself as a master of intelligent filmmaking, generally sticking to the psychological thriller genre while mixing in action and brain-bending flourishes. And now with Interstellar he has left the confines of Earth's gravity to head into science-fiction for the first time.

Matthew Mcconaughey & Anne Hathaway on set

Intriguingly, Nolan has still maintained his commitment to in-camera effects even in this genre, refusing to indulge in flashy digital trickery just because he can. Like his last few films, he has also shot portions of the film in Imax, massive screen imagery photographed on film, not digitally, which gives the entire movie an earthy texture that's intriguingly realistic. This also focusses even the most existential and scientific discussions squarely on the characters.

Continue reading: Interstellar Is A New Genre For Nolan

The New York premiere of Christopher Nolan’s eagerly-awaited survivalist space epic, Interstellar, attracted a wealth of fabulously dressed celebrities on Monday night including its main stars, Matthew Mcconaughey, Anne Hathaway and Jessica Chastain. It also gave itself open to the critics before its big nationwide release on November, 7.

The main star, Matthew McConaughy, at the New York premiere of Interstellar

So what did they think about this potentially brilliant masterpiece by one of the most sought-after directors featuring one of the most popular actors of the moment? Could it ever live up to the hype? Or has its build up inevitably led to an unfortunate downfall? And, most importantly perhaps, should you go and see it?

Continue reading: Interstellar - Nolan's "Flawless Masterpiece"

Jessica Chastain's career has skyrocketed in the last couple of years, mainly due to receiving critical acclaim for her role in 'Zero Dark Thirty,' therefore so has her profile as a Hollywood star, but being a celebrity is something she isn't interested in.

Chastain wants to avoid living in the public eye

The 37 year-old actress recently opened up to The Telegraph about trying to avoid living the life of a famous person, her lack of interest in dating any other celebrities and concentrating on working as an actress.

Continue reading: Why Jessica Chastain Will Never Date Someone Famous

Jessica Chastain and James McAvoy both star alongside each other in the forthcoming drama 'The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby,' but just because the film's story is a very serious doesn't mean filming it has to be.

Chastain opened about working alongside McAvoy

The 37 year-old actress recently opened up in the October issue of Interview magazine about working alongside McAvoy and recalls how the Scottish actor kept making her laugh while shooting intense scenes in the flick.

Continue reading: Jessica Chastain Reveals How James McAvoy Kept Her Laughing During 'The Disappearance Of Eleanor Rigby' Scenes

Jessica Chastain is one of the top actresses in Hollywood today for a reason, she loves her job! In fact, the 37 year-old star is so passionate about working in the film industry she feels a huge lack of fulfilment when not engaged with a new project.

Chastain feels very emotional when she isn't working

In the latest issue of Harper's Bazaar U.K., which she features on the front cover of, Chastain admitted that in a recent break from filming, she began to become very emotional and almost felt "depressed."

Continue reading: Jessica Chastain Begins Feeling "Depressed" When In-Between Film Projects

Al Pacino has exclusively revealed to the Daily Mail that he will be returning to the West End in a production of Oscar Wilde’s play, Salome, in 2016. This will mark a return to the London stage for the American actor for the first time in 30 years, although he has dipped his toe in the Wilde water before with productions of Salome in New York and Los Angeles.

Al Pacino and Jessica Chastain starred in Salome the film version together

The latter was filmed in 2006 as a cinema version that is currently on release, starring Jessica Chastain in the title role. This new British outing for Pacino will serve to be more than the rehearsed readings in the states and the star has promised: "We’ll be wearing clothes for London".

Continue reading: Pacino To Return To West End For Salome

Yesterday the release date for Fast & Furious 7 was announced for April 2015. As predicted, this allows for some production delays and for the cast and crew to have a mental health break following Paul Walker’s death.

It also means that the film will be pitched against a different set of competitors, which might affect the franchise’s profits. In July 2014, the main competitor to our favorite fast-cars-no-plot franchise would have been Dawn of the Planet of the Apes.

Vin Diesel broke the news via Facebook yesterday.

Continue reading: In April 2015, Which Films Will "Fast & Furious 7" Have To Beat To Rule The Box Office?

Earlier this week we were treated to the first teaser trailer for Christopher Nolan's sci-fi epic Interstellar. The trailer really did put the 'teaser' back in to teaser trailer, as it consisted only of archive footage of various historical events, with Matthew Mcconaughey's rich Texan drawl narrating something inspirational over the top of the images. It gave absolutely nothing away in regards to what we can expect to see in the film, but frankly we don't even care.

Not to jump to conclusions, but Nolan might have done it again

Nolan has been working in relative secrecy on the project along with his brother, Jonathan Nolan, with the basis of the film apparently being inspired by a story by physicist Kip S. Thorne. We already know this, as well as the fact that McConaughey will be starring in the film alongside Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain, Casey Affleck, Michael Caine and others, and after seeing the first glimpse of the film this is still all we know in regards to what the Nolan Bros. have in store for us. Their secrecy might make some angry, but frankly the secrecy is just making us more and more excited for the complex film.

Continue reading: First Glimpse At 'Interstellar' Gives Very Little Away - Why Are We So Excited Then!?

Jennifer Lawrence fended off stiff competition from Emmanuelle Riva and Jessica Chastain to win Best Actress at the Oscars on Sunday evening (February 24, 2013). The Silver Linings Playbook star was the early favourite in the betting, though Amour actress Riva won plenty of support in the weeks leading up to the ceremony at the Dolby Theatre. She was also celebrating her birthday on Sunday.

Lawrence - who ticked off a few people at the Golden Globes, announcing "I bet Meryl" - looked visibly stunned as she made her way to the stage, though she slipped and fell in her huge Christian Dior dress. Someone from the audience rushed to her aid, though Lawrence managed to compose herself and make it on stage. The fall appeared to rock the first-time Oscar winner, who quickly rushed through her speech before being ushered backstage. Twitter buzzed into life after the unfortunate stumble, with one Oscar-viewer joking, "Jennifer Lawrence just lived her dream and her nightmare." The reviews aggregating website Rotten Tomatoes tweeted, "Jennifer Lawrence is Best Actress, and Worst Stair Climber at Oscars. But if anyone can brush it off, it's her. Congrats, tiny dancer."

Lawrence's award preceded Daniel Day-Lewis's win in the category of Best Actor. He is the only actor to win the award three times. 

Continue reading: Oscars 2013: Jennifer Lawrence Falls Over After Winning Best Actress

A poll conducted by voters reveals that the American public have got Jennifer Lawrence pegged as the winner of the Best Actress Oscar, for her performance in Silver Linings Playbook. Lawrence has already bagged a Golden Globe, a Satellite Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Award, amongst others and the voters in Reuters’ poll seem pretty confident that she can repeat that success at next weekend’s Academy Awards.

With 15 per cent of the votes, Lawrence may have been the favourite but her heels were being well and truly snapped at by Jessica Chastain, star of Kathryn Bigelow’s political drama Zero Dark Thirty, with 11 per cent of the vote. Of course, awards shows are all about surprises and the statuette could well be awarded to one of the category outsiders, such as 85 year-old Emmanuelle Riva (Amour) and 9 year-old Quvenzhane Wallis (Beasts of the Southern Wild). Naomi Watts is also nominated, for her role in the tsunami disaster movie the Impossible.

In the Best Supporting Actress category, 26 per cent of the 1,586 voters felt that Anne Hathaway was most likely to take home the prize, for her brief but powerful performance in Les Miserables. 

Continue reading: Jennifer Lawrence To Win Best Actress Oscar? Poll Voters Seem To Think So...

Jennifer Lawrence is still the odds-on favourite to win Best Actress at the Oscars next month for her turn in Silver Linings Playbook, but don't be surprised should Zero Dark Thirty's Jessica Chastain snatch the gong away from her after an awards' season filled with bad omens for the young Hollywood star. The first being that she's won Best Actress at pretty much every awards' show going - how many times have we seen that before a surprise knockdown at the Oscars?

Lawrence probably deserves the award; her comical performance opposite Bradley Cooper in David O'Russell's quirky movie was lauded by critics as her finest performance yet, though something in the air suggests the Hunger Games star may have to wait for her riches. It all started following her Golden Globes success, when Lawrence yelled "I beat Meryl!" upon collecting her award. Hollywood was instantly aghast - was this a sly dig at Meryl Streep? Lindsay Lohan certainly thought so. How dare she! Nobody criticizes Meryl! Anyway, Lawrence cleared up the controversy during an appearance on the David Letterman show, though we get the feeling she never quite recovered from it. Next up was the actress' hosting of Saturday Night Live during which she poked fun at Quvenzhané Wallis, her 9-year-old rival in the Best Actress category at the Oscars, quipping, "The alphabet called. It wants its letters back." To Jessica Chastain she offered, "In Zero Dark Thirty you caught bin Laden. So what? In Winter's Bone I caught a squirrel, and then ate it." Sure it was all in jest, though Hollywood still raised an eyebrow.

And then, of course, there was Lawrence's infamous wardrobe malfunction at the SAG Awards this past weekend, when her Christian Dior gown appeared to split in two.for some reason. It was a key moment too: all eyes were on the actress as she made her way onto the stage to collect her prize.

Continue reading: Is Jennifer Lawrence's SAG Awards Malfunction A Bad Omen For The Oscars?

Updates From Sundance Film Festival And The London Critics' Circle Awards Plus Trailers For, Stoker, Emperor And Red 2

As the Sundance Film Festival continues in Utah, buzz is emerging about the new Nicole Kidman movie Stoker, in which she plays the widowed mother of teen Mia Wasikowska as they deal with the arrival of the unexpectedly sexy Uncle Charlie (Matthew Goode). From the director of Old Boy, a new trailer depicts the film as a stylish, warped and very black comedy. It comes to cinemas on March 1st.

Here in Britain, two leading awards contenders open this week. Steven Spielberg's Lincoln stars Daniel Day-Lewis, the front-runner in the Best Actor race. This would be his unprecedented third win in the category. And Kathryn Bigelow's Zero Dark Thirty stars Jessica Chastain, who is currently the favourite for Best Actress, although Jennifer Lawrence in Silver Linings Playbook is giving her some serious competition.

But no one should write off iconic French actress Emmanuelle Riva's astonishing turn in Amour. She won the London Critics' Circle Film Award for Best Actress on Sunday. The London critics also gave Amour their Film of the Year title, and it's up for Best Picture at the Oscars as well.

Continue reading: A Week In Movies: Sundance Buzz For Stoker Trailer, London Critics' Choose Amour, First Look At Tommy Lee Jones In Emperor

With the Oscars just a month or so away, Jessica Chastain couldn’t have asked for a much better moment to be thrust further into the public eye; the star is in the top two grossing films from the weekend’s US Box Office, with supernatural thriller Mama topping the charts and the Oscar-nominated Zero Dark Thirty taking second place.

Opening above expectations, the BBC reports that Mama took in a credible $28.1 million, with Zero Dark Thirty – which is based on the US army’s search for terrorist Osama Bin Laden – taking $17.6 million for second; this in spite of criticisms about the film’s handling of interrogation and torture scenes. Behind that, Silver Linings Playbook – another Oscar favourite – continued its success, taking a further $11.4 million on its 10^th week of release. There was slightly better news for the disappointing Gangster Squad too; the mobster film had taken disappointing opening takings the previous weekend, but managed to hold on to a top five placing on its second weekend with takings of $9.1 million. It still doesn’t look like setting the world alight, but at least it’s not dropped off the map entirely.

Rounding out the top five was Broken City, which took $9 million, whilst elsewhere Django Unchained became Quentin Tarantino’s most commercially successful film ever, as it added $8.2 million to its total to reach $138.4 million domestically.

Continue reading: US Box Office Round-Up: Mama Tops Takings; Good Weekend For Jessica Chastain

Jessica Chastain's star power is really starting to show. Since starring in 7 films in 2011, and a further four last year, plus being nominated for countless awards, movie makers are getting some serious bang for their buck with her. 

Guillermo Del Toros' latest horror movie Mama was made on a low budget and had some pretty poor reviews, however with the well renowned director at the helm and Jessica Chastain's face all over it, it took an impressive $28m over the weekend. Having been produced for around $15m it's almost doubled that in just two days. Nice. 

Not too far behind is her major hit of the year Zero Dark Thirty, in which she stars as the head of the team hunting for Osama bin Laden. That took $17.6 million. Trailing with $11.35m is another big contender in this year's awards, Silver Linings Playbook starring Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper. 

Continue reading: Jessica Chastain Tops Box Office With 2 Movies And Guillermo Del Toro's 'Mama' Beats Poor Reviews

Eva Longoria's Black Emilio Pucci Dress Came Open At The Golden Globes

If you thought the Golden Globes' passed by with only minimal fashion disasters, than you were wrong. Ok, so Jessica Chastain's dress was pretty horrible, and Jennifer Lawrence and Zooey Deschanel wore similar outfits, but on reflection, it appears Eva Longoria took home the prize for biggest wardrobe blunder of the evening.

Eagle eyed commentators - specifically the UK's Sun newspaper - noticed that as Longoria posed for red-carpet photographs in her elegant Emilio Pucci creation, the dress had gaped open! The Desperate Housewife unwittingly became the centre of attention as her male guest looked on in horror. The actress was unaware of the malfunction, though was probably a little red-faced after seeing the snaps the following morning.

Continue reading: Eva Longoria's Wardrobe Malfunction Was Golden Globes' Biggest Blunder (Pictures)

As awards season kicks off, today with the BAFTA nominations and tomorrow with the Golden Globe award ceremony, actors, actresses, directors and producers everywhere will be biting their nails and praying for a win from at least one of the big three coming up, the aforementioned two, of the Oscars, nominations for which will also be released tomorrow. 

There are very few surprises in the BAFTA nominations as this year has some clear stand-out offerings to the trade, and as announced by Alice Eve and Jeremy Irvine, here's the low down on the biggest prizes. 

Nominations for best film are the big five: Argo, Les Miserables, Life of Pi, Lincoln and Zero Dark Thirty. Despite BAFTA being a British institution, there's not a British film in sight (except Les Mis, but the majority of leads aren't from the fair isle). Luckily, however, there's a whole separate award for Brits. In that list, the contenders are Anna Karenina, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (that was 2012? it seems so long ago), Les Miserables, Seven Psychopaths and a much deserved Skyfall. 

Continue reading: British Awards Season Begins With The Unsurprising Nominations At The Baftas

Jason Clarke may be treading in Jessica Chastain’s shadows when it comes to praise for Zero Dark Thirty but he’s fast being recognised as a rising star in Hollywood. In an interview with Comingsoon.net, the interviewer remarks that on watching another on-screen pairing between Clarke & Chastain (Lawless, which came out before ZD30), he realised that Clarke is one of those actors that’s in tons of movies, but you probably don’t know who he is yet.

With a knowing smirk on his face, Jason Clarke explains how he got involved in Kathryn Bigelow’s controversial movie. “Heard about it going on,” he reveals, “really wanted to be part of it, because you realise it’s a once in a lifetime opportunity to be part of something so relevant.” Since the interview took place, Zero Dark Thirty has become embroiled in controversy, over its portrayal of various torture tactics used by the CIA to get information out of their captives. Clarke’s character Dan is an integral part of those powerfully dramatic scenes and we reckon it won’t be long before he starts getting the roles and the recognition that he deserves.

The Aussie actor can be seen later this year in the highly-anticipated and long-delayed version of The Great Gatsby, due out in May. He plays the role of George Wilson, alongside Carey Mulligan, Isla Fisher, Leonardo Dicaprio and Tobey Maguire. Jason Clarke’s light will not be hidden under that bushel for much longer! 

Continue reading: Who Is Jason Clarke? Introducing Zero Dark Thirty's Rising Star

The CIA have entered the fiery debate surrounding Kathryn Bigelow's latest movie Zero Dark Thirty, claiming the Hollywood portrayal of the hunt for Osama Bin Laden "departs from reality" in significant ways. 

In a strange letter to CIA employees - obtained by the Washington Post - director Michael Morell said that the Oscar tipped movie leads viewers to believe that a "few individuals" were behind the hunt for the al-Qaeda leader, instead of the "hundreds of officers" who were involved in the case. He also rejects the film's depiction of CIA interrogation and the implication that it helped extract key intelligence from detainees. "The film takes considerable liberties in its depiction of CIA personnel and their actions, including some who died while serving our country," Morell said. "We cannot allow a Hollywood film to cloud our memory of them". Though based on true events, Bigelow has made no secret of the fact that her latest movie is just that, a Hollywood movie, driven by the actress Jessica Chastain.  However, it did little to perturb senators John McCain, Dianne Feinstein and Carl Levin, who noted that the film was "grossly inaccurate and misleading."

In his letter, Morell signed off by reminding colleagues that "the Bin Laden operation was a landmark achievement by our country, by our military, by our Intelligence Community, and by our Agency."

Continue reading: Don't The CIA Have More Pressing Matters Than Bigelow's Zero Dark Thirty?

To win a Screen Actors Guild Award is one of the most prestigious accolades an actor or actress can receive in their career. 2012 has given us some fantastic films, so the competition is even more fierce. We can all speculate but what do the bookies have to say? Paddy Power have compiled their odds, and here they are.

Daniel Day-Lewis is leading the pack for the coveted prize of Best Actor, with odds of 4/11. Having received almost unanimously positive reviews for his performance in Lincoln, this is no real surprise. He's beating competition of Flight's Denzel Washington at 4/1, Hugh Jackman in Les Miserables, at 6/1, The Sessions' John Hawkes at 7/1, and dragging a little way behind with 14/1 is Bradley Cooper for his role in Silver Linings Playbook. 

Silver Linings Playbook is doing considerably better for the prize for Best Actress, as Jennifer Lawrence is the favourite to win it for her role in the film, with pretty good odds of 8/15. Jennifer Chastain, who has also been praised very highly for her role in Zero Dark Thirty is the second favourite with odds of 7/4. Marion Cotillard has odds of 8/1 for her role in Rust and Bone, which is the film's only recognition in the nominations. Helen Mirren in Hitchcock has 14/1 odds, and Naomi Watts is bringing up the rear for her role in The Impossible. 

Continue reading: Jennifer Lawrence And Daniel Day-Lewis Are Odds-On Favourites For SAG Awards

The highly controversial Zero Dark Thirty heads to cinemas screens in under a month, with the release for the film falling on December 19, 2012. The movie has drawn huge attention given that it focuses on the events that led up to the eventual killing of notorious terrorist Osama Bin Laden – the man behind the September 11 attacks on New York.

However, many thinking that this is set to be a movie fawning about the actions of President Barack Obama will be surprised – he only appears once in the film, on a TV saying that he doesn’t believe in torture, according to the Daily Mail. Much of the focus instead lies on actress Jessica Chastain’s portrayal of Maya, a female CIA Agent who becomes obsessed with catching and killing the Bin Laden.

It sounds potentially sickening, the glamorizing of such an event; however the early reviews have been somewhat positive, with much of the praise on Chastain herself. "[Chastain] is essentially asked here to carry a movie for the first time, and she rises to the occasion," writes The Hollywood Reporter, whilst Time Magazine even thought that it bettered Oscar-possible Argo, writing "Zero Dark Thirty" blew the similarly intense "Argo" "out of the water.” Oscar blogger Sasha Stone certainly felt that Zero Dark Thirty was in with a chance too, though, claiming "It's a crowded Oscar season for great films. But it's a good thing everyone had 'Zero Dark Thirty's' place in line because it is easily one of the year’s most memorable [features].”

The race to the Academy Awards is beginning to hot up with movie executives beginning to hobnob with various industry people and drum up support for their respective films. Sir Anthony Hopkins recently explained how he refused to travel to New York just for the sake of speaking to the right people about his movie Hitchcock, and we all know what Joaquin Phoenix thinks of the whole charade. 

Though some people really want to win an Oscar. The people behind Denzel Washington's Flight have released a special trailer targeted at Academy voters, and the people over at Team Cloud Atlas would probably kill to just spend five minutes with one of the statuettes, any of them. One actress who would love to get her hands on the Best Actress gong for a second time (though she'd never admit it) is Marion Cotillard, whose turn in Rust and Bone has been winning quiet praise in the lead up to awards' season. The movie focuses on a man's bond with a killer whale trainer, which grows deeper after she suffers a horrible accident. Sounds pretty grisly huh? But the critics loved it, and lauded Cotillard's performance in particular. Peter Travers of Rolling Stone wrote, "As an orca trainer who loses her legs, Cotillard is astonishing, as is Schoenaerts as a boxer who helps restore her sexual identity. Audiard's hypnotic film means to shake you, and does." Tim Robey of The Telegraph said, "Cotillard, who's been waiting since La vie en rose for a role this substantial, is at her damaged, devastating best". 

For punters, Cotillard represents one of the best value for money bets of awards' season. She's currently available at 8/1 to win Best Actress at the Oscars - seen as a wide open race. Pretty much everyone knew Meryl Streep was going to win last year, though in 2013, Jennifer Lawrence (Silver Linings Playbook), Sally Field (Lincoln), Anne Hathaway (Les Miserables) Emannuelle Riva (Amour), Ouvenzhane Wallis (Beasts of the Southern Wild), Jessica Chastain (Zero Dark Thirty),  Helen Mirren (Hitchcock) or Cotillard could all scoop the prize.

Continue reading: Could Marion Cotillard Win An Oscar For Rust And Bone?

It seems there were plenty of Downton Abbey fans in the house when Dan Stevens debuted in The Heiress on Broadway, alongside Jessica Chastain. This was the first time that both Stevens and Chastain had appeared on Broadway. With both actors playing against type, only one appears to have done so convincingly.

The casting of Dan Stevens in the role of Morris Townsend is praised by the Hollywood Reporter’s reviewer David Rooney, who writes “the actor is a savvy casting choice in a part that requires beguiling charm and sufficient sincerity to keep us wondering about his character’s motives” and later adds “Stevens brings such unsullied earnestness to the role that we want to believe in his honest intentions, just as he appears to want the same. Morris is so bewitched by the material comforts of the Slopers’ swanky home on fashionable Washington Square that he seems as much a victim of his desires as the architect of any calculated scheme.”

Jessica Chastain, however, does not seem to have fared so well at the hands of the critics. The same review suggests that, despite her recent run of untouchable success in the world of film, the “underpowered Jessica Chastain (is) hampered by questionable directorial choices, dilutes the emotional impact of this nonetheless compelling melodrama.” Not such great news for Chastain, then, but an excellent Broadway debut for Dan Stevens, who has managed to impress the Downton fans, despite breaking from the confines of his nice-guy TV character.

Continue reading: Thumbs Up For Dan Steven's Broadway Debut In The Heiress